WikiLeaks Founder: Document Leak 'Only Scratched The Surface'

Nicholas Sabloff and Doug Sarro

Today's AfPak round-up:

Wikileaks: 15,000+ more Afghan documents under review. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said the documents released Sunday "only scratched the surface" of the Afghan war's history. He did not say when Wikileaks would decide whether to release the documents. [Independent]

Lawmakers downplay leak. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is lobbying House Democrats to approve more funding for the Afghan war, reminded reporters that "a lot of [the data released] predates the president's new policy." Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) echoed Pelosi, calling the leaks "old news." Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), on the other hand, said the leaks "raise serious questions" about U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. [WashPo]

Pentagon launches hunt for leaker. "Until we know who's responsible, you have to hold out the possibility that there could be more information that has yet to be disclosed. And that's obviously a concern," said a Pentagon spokesman. Spc. Bradley Manning is alleged to have handed 260,000 secret diplomatic cables to Wikileaks, but the Pentagon has yet to publicly link him to Sunday's leak. Meanwhile, the Pentagon says it will take "days if not weeks" to review the over 90,000 documents already released by Wikileaks and determine whether they threaten U.S. national security or endanger Afghans working with NATO forces. [Al Jazeera English]

Daniel Ellsberg compares War Diaries to Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg said that the sheer scale of last Sunday's leak, together with the documents' release in the middle of "an outrageous escalation of the war," justify the comparison. However, Ellsberg added that the War Diaries lack the top secret policy documents that made the Pentagon Papers so groundbreaking. [Guardian]